A sign posted at the entrance to the Henry Hudson Trail in Atlantic Highlands warns that the trail is closed. / Mary Frank, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

by Kathleen Hopkins and Kevin Penton, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

by Kathleen Hopkins and Kevin Penton, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

ASBURY PARK, N.J. -- A waterfront path along the Jersey shore was a little piece of paradise until Hurricane Irene wreaked havoc on it in 2011, and Superstorm Sandy came along a year later and destroyed it.

Now, hopes of restoring the popular 2.5-mile stretch of the Henry Hudson Trail along Sandy Hook Bay between Atlantic Highlands and Highlands are in jeopardy, partly because of legal action threatened by Bruce Springsteen's drummer Max Weinberg and a municipal judge.

Longtime E Street Band member Weinberg and Atlantic Highlands Muncipal Judge Peter Locascio, who both have homes along the trail, have filed notice that they may sue the county, claiming the work that was done to create the trail - including the removal of vegetation and detritus along the trail - created erosion and worsened the impact Sandy had on their property.

Monmouth County stopped work on the trail after legal papers were filed in January. Now people in the area say they are concerned because merchants in both towns who had benefited from the trail's traffic are suffering and residents who had enjoyed the recreational path are barred from using it.

"My biggest fear is that Monmouth County might not have the financial or political wherewithal to fight these two guys, and so they end up leaving the trail unfixed," said Garret Newcomb, who owns Kranky Cycles in Highlands. "The Bayshore would be so much better off economically if that trail were back in place."

The threatened legal action is one of several reasons why the county has not restored the trail, said Karen Livingstone, spokeswoman for the county parks system. Officials have not yet identified funding, and permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection will be needed if the trail is redesigned to withstand future storms, Livingstone said.

"Superstorm Sandy really did a lot of damage to the trail," Livingstone said. The damage included destruction of four footbridges, officials said.

In his notice, Weinberg claims that work on the trail caused more than $500,000 in damage to two properties he owns on Bayside Drive. Locascio - his next-door neighbor - makes a similar claim but does not specify a dollar amount.

In their legal filings, they reason that the clearing of vegetation and detritus around the trail, not just the effects of Sandy, led to the erosion at the bottom of the bluff on which their homes sit. Both claim they are concerned that the erosion could compromise their homes.

"The initial removal of vegetation to construct the trail, and continued 'maintenance' of cleared vegetations has exposed the toe of the bluffs to accelerated erosion of the toe during storm surges," engineer Geoffrey Goll wrote in a letter accompanying Weinberg's claim.

The trail was built by Atlantic Highlands on a railroad right-of-way in 2009 for about $1 million and turned over to the county parks system the following year.

Weinberg and his wife paid $1.1 million for one of the properties in 2010 and $550,000 for the second property in September 2012, only a month before Sandy. Locascio and his wife bought their home for $70,000 in 1977.

Attorney Michael Fasano, who represents Weinberg, and Locascio, who represents himself, could not be reached for comment. Monmouth County officials would not comment on the notices, citing potential litigation.

But Adam Hubeny, Atlantic Highlands' administrator, questioned the argument that missing shrubbery, and not the intensity of a storm such as Sandy, could have led to the hill's erosion.

"If any storm of this magnitude rolled into any hillside location, it would have caused erosion," Hubeny said.

Cleanup work on the trail began earlier this year, but the Department of Environmental Protection ordered the county in late spring to stop digging a ditch parallel to the path because the work went beyond the scope of the original permit, said Bob Considine, a DEP spokesman.

"The county is free to reconstruct the trail as it is authorized in the permit," Considine said.

The park system's Livingstone said it is unlikely the trail will be rebuilt exactly as it was. The county is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to obtain funding, she said.

Since the trail closed, bicycle, sandwich, coffee and flower shops in the center of Highlands have experienced a downturn in business, Highlands Councilwoman Tara Ryan said.